Toolong

If it was me in the same situation, I think I would not be able to resist feeling compelled to - at the very least - go back to the apparent cowboy outfit , and as politely but straight-forwardly as possible, just state your concerns, showing - if necessary - the pictures your other party showed you & what they refer to. If they don't exactly react in the most contrite way, mai pen lai, but let it go. Smile, walk away....and 'take the high road'.......so to speak. No big confrontation required at all. You'll feel better for having done it and your bike's future maintenance better assured by never going back to that particular 'authorized' dealer.

'......the land will always be in her name.' Sorry to be dim, perhaps.....but who's the 'her'? You mother in law or your wife? Who's the 'both'? (Sorry, just ambiguous.) If it's your wife and the place is in her name, then can't she simply bequeath it in her will to whomever she chooses, thus potentially precluding 'nasty' family getting their hands on it via next-of-kin default? If the 'her' is the MiL, then it's complicated, yes. Just two things occurs to me, PattayaGuy......and that's that if YOU'RE thinking about this, then to be sure your wife's family will be thinking about it, or have long done so, too. And also.....with genuine respect to your good wife, does she 100% share your own views on this? Will she totally back all efforts on your part to stop house eventually going to her kin? Like Wanderer555 advised, I'd 'go slowly and seek professional assistance'.....if that assistance is required. And good luck. I can certainly empathize with you in your situation.

'......advising the owner to maintain a separation between his political views and personal life'. Of course, that's how you would like it to be..., right, Pornthip. Along with the other senators with their pieces of silver long deposited it their fat bank accounts. Oh, dear, this so unThai......to question the moral superiority of the Thai elite! Why should you be blamed for your sins in this 'personal' context? Pornthip, since your elite-puppy Suthep led the (your) elite coup against Yingluck's govt in 2014.........it became, for me anyway.....ALL personal. If I, as a falang, feel that, why shouldn't a Thai restaurant owner, an actual Thai.....wherever in the world.......feel what I feel....x10 ? Own it. Own your complicity in this shambles, you fake 'Kon dee'.

Could be......but I was thinking more like, 'Why worry?' ????

It's possible that your friend may know something (or think he does) about his situation, now or to come, that he's not telling you about. Maybe he knows or senses that he won't have too much time left. Hereditary conditions (particularly cancer) can kick in around his age. I'm 63 and expecting something like that will appear on my horizon at some point soon. That may NOT be the case with your mate, but whatever.....I say good for him. Do whatever you gotta do, fella! Chok dee????

'It don't amount to a hill o' beans anyway!'

Great reply. Thanks, dingdongrb. Very interesting comments. Re the Budweiser factory policy on sipping suds on site: I hope it doesn't reflect too badly on me to say this, but I kind of liked reading that and thinking a bit nostalgically about it, although it sounds wildly crazy these days to have such a policy. I'm old enough to remember those days and gotta admit I miss the different, more-relaxed vibe then. (Example: did 5 months in traction in UK hospital in 1981. Was permitted to booze my heart out, smoking was fine, non-stop and wards & corridors always had a blue haze of baccy smoke floating around the ceiling areas! How that was once perfectly acceptable, it is impossible to imagine now. Oh, for the bad old days!) Yes, microbrews are the way to go if you want to enjoy the better things in life more. ???? PS: If I ever encounter a 'Clydesdale' in TH, I'll try it out.

With respect, dingdong, having lived near a Bud brewery & having mates who worked there hardly fully explains why it's a 'chit beer', unless you missed something out. I'm really, genuinely interested to know. I'm not 'trolling' you or anything....honestly ????. I've never tried other US beer brands (unless Corona is US made) so I don't have the advantage of being able to compare. Anyway, I have a kind of 'back-up' policy (so to speak) of only drinking one can of Bud if I'm drinking say, 3 or 4 cans. The others are definitely superior brands, so compensate for any deficiency inherent in the Bud, which is always my first can! Re judging alc content? I admit I just assume it would be as per stated. Maybe I'm being naive. Maybe Budweiser QC ain't as good as I imagine. ????????

So a lot of people say, but I'd politely disagree. I find the taste more than satisfactory tbh, and while the price is only a few baht more than Singha per can, you get the full 500ml + a reliable 5% alc content every time.

Glad to see your post, Kannika. Thought I was the only one wise to this stuff. By stuff I mean this kind of low-down, sneaky 'kee-gong' scamming going on to squeeze every satang of profit they can. ('They' being the big brewery monopoly boys in TH.) First got a whiff of their games when (about 10 years ago) it suddenly went from 330ml to 320ml & 640ml to 620ml & 500ml to 490ml..............just like that. Overnight. Excuse? Brewers don't wanna raise prices, so keep the price stable but reduce capacity. Nonsense.....prices went up anyway......and profits went higher still. So, being a bitter & twisted saddo.....but also a man of principle, I switched to foreign brews, like Asahi or Budweiser (it ain't bad!!). Put my intake back at proper levels, ie, 330ml or 500ml per can. A bit pricier but then....I figured I was worth it! ???? Will end this with a helpful (I hope) tip, KannikaP...... and anyone else out there who drinks their beers from.....bottles. Tip is this: try cans. Taste is measureably better imo. (It IS different anyway, definitely, but 'better' is for you to judge of course.....and yes, I know.....if you're drinking outside somewhere, it's all bottled, so it's for those folks like me who drink at home a lot. ) Cheers.

Indecisive, vague ambiguity in others can just be so darned annoying for me so I generally resist using hackneyed phrases like 'it depends', as a sure-fire....but - for my sins - I really can't respond to this query without using it to offer my honest viewpoint. (Yeah....boring comment, I know ????, sorry.) But will add this: to paraphrase the old nursery rhyme line......when Thais are good, they're very, very good, but when they're bad, they're wicked. (Sums up my own experience actually, married twice to Thais. Former spouse: totally wicked. Latter: couldn't wish for better.)

A bit tangential, forgive me, but based on personal situation I find myself in after recent purchase of (a relatively modest amount) Thai gold bar bullion, I'm wondering how others who also make such purchases of physical gold keep it & keep it secure. Some may think it wisest to pay for a bank locker.....others may have 10 ton safes, etc., but some, like me, may prefer to.....well, let's say.......'make their own arrangements'.....so to speak.....in a manner once very familiar to our human ancestors! Of course I'm NOT expecting anyone to reveal anything at all about their own circumstances that would reveal too much or allow even the tiniest modicum of risk.....simply to answer my query (you might even think I'm out of order in asking.....I get that!) so perhaps I'll distill it into a single safe-enough, unintrusive question: do you think the bank lockers rentable in Thai banks are an ok deal, security-wise? Which, apart from the fairly reasonable cost of renting, present no greater risk of loss in a potential failure/collapse of the bank itself? Or not?

I also drink 4 small cans of beer per daily intake (well, actually...these days have gone more for 3 of the larger 490ml cans, which is slightly more than 4 small) but have 2 consecutive days off to give the liver a break. Plus I eat well and get exercise. Personally, I weigh it on balance as 'moderate' enough, while allowing me the immense satisfaction of mellowing out for a few hours at the end of the day. (Btw....the 2 evenings off are tough, but it's a 'sacrifice' I'm prepared to bear.....just!????)

The incalculable harm done by such underhand, egregious, 'law-fare', against those special few in this sad, benighted country who offer reason for hope & optimism.....is tragic. And one despicable individual stands out as particularly culpable......so called 'activist', Srisuwan Janya. If I felt more assured that my comments would not be censored (& understandably so) by AN moderators, I would indulge in the most vulgar hate speech (the like of which I promise you you ain't ever heard) against Janya and the gangsters who control him. But then, Pannika's (imo) only temporarily a victim of this unjust ruling. Such rulings now can one day be binned & done away. Her day, like Pita's, is yet to come. Shame we'll have to wait so long for it......unless it gets decided sooner, on the streets....so to speak.

Don't spend it, brother.........end it. And as you back away, never to return, do it Thai style, with a deep wai and a winning smile. What's best for you is yet to come, somewhere down the road. Bon chance!

With respect to your wife ( and yourself), I would advise you to......as much as possible......let her take care of this. (Or she & other family members, if thereabouts and they are on her/your side) Doing so is NOT shirking any responsibility you may (or maybe not) think you have to be the alpha male & so on. (I don't mean that disparagingly! ????) Back off and keep cool. Hold that frustration until the right time to move.....IF you have make that move. And only then. Otherwise, you could start a conflict that in TH, never ends well.

Can empathasize with your frustration & concern, Felton. Don't know you, of course....nor your age or precisely how serious (as someone who's pre-diabetic) your particular need to pay attention to diet & so on may be. So won't ramble on. But will say, as someone who lived through some nasty heart-attack business nearly 20 years ago and who also showed signs of being worryingly pre-diabetic, my experience forced me to make some unavoidable choices. One was diet of course. I have cooked my own grub for so long now (in Thailand btw) that it is by no means the hassle it was once. In fact, I now love it But my point: Noticeably better health was my reward. Please, whatever anyone's saying here about sugar not being the villain.....no, it is. It really is. Even so-called natural sugars in fruits, like mangoes, bananas etc. Avoid if you are able to. (Most people would think that to be insane nonsense, I know, but following accepted dietary 'norms' can get you into trouble if you're not careful & informed.) Along with bad fats, especially seed oils and......in Thailand, reused & deep-fried seed oils, 2,3 maybe 4+ times....run a mile. Something I've found to be HUGELY beneficial is fasting. Perhaps more than anything else, this is the biggie.....for me anyway. I eat once a day. My liver is never overloaded with way too much carb & sugar stuff. What's there and converted to glucose is used up during the fasting period, not accumulated in a toxic build-up that does the damage. Used to be 3 meal a day person, heavy on the carbs. I still can't do without carbs nor want to, so enjoy one meal a day including carbs. Anyway, good luck.

I'm curious to know exactly what was drunk. Considering the potency of some cheaper, 'lower-deck' booze here, the question of how much was drunk is not always needful or helpful in seeing how such a terribly sad event occurred.....as it was so obviously 'too much' to even bother considering that. I know I have personally been (long ago) rendered completely off-my-f****ng-head on even small amounts of 'lao khao'-type booze. Sometimes with horrible consequences. (Looking baçk, dunno how I escaped potentially catastrophic outcomes....though I stress I thankfully never went violently berserk......though came pretty close.) Condemn the guy yes......he deserves no mercy.....but his wife's dead (who he may have loved dearly), any kids now orphans, families devastated....he now may as well be better off dead, with the weight of guilt that'll bring him down over years of torment. My dear old Ma used to say we all walk a thin old line between perfectly fine & normal.....and utter, sudden nightmare......every day. Some know it, some don't. But outcomes are the same. The guy was most likely drinking bad booze. Cheap stuff. The 'opium of the masses'. Provided by those (CP et al) who require their labour without concern for their actual welfare as people. So sorry to read this news item.

'...I listen to depressing songs that actually cheer me up...' Yes, I can kind of get that. I remember reading a quote from Bob Dylan about how many mistook playing & listening to blues music (I mean real old time blues) as be a way of getting INTO the blues, when ironically, on the part of those actually singing it and digging it, it was a way of getting OUT of the blues. But that aside......for reasons of personal nostalgia mostly (basically at a time when life seemed happy), I'd go for Stevie Wonder's 'I just called to say I love you'....or that Lionel Ritchie and The Commodores track that talked about 'Easy like Sunday Morning....' stuff.

This particular saga goes on.....and is certainly something that gets the Thaksin-haters in a spin. I don't exactly love the guy myself (though I admit to having more time & respect for him than the establishment mafia who brought him down). But it all gets me wondering: many from all sides....Thaksin-haters, to Thaksin-likers, to those who neither hate or like him....still go on about 'justice'. As in 'justice must be served'. Well, yes...of course....but a) do they who think that way know precisely the proper history of his exile as a so-called 'fugitive'? The reason for it? What was ACTUALLY the truth of it? (I'm not denying the possibility of his guilt.) And b) if justice is the issue with Thaksin, for allegedly using the office of PM to buy some land cheap...... .....do they who point their finger at Thaksin have ANY idea about the much, much, MUCH worse level of corrupt criminality committed by those who sought to - and did - bring him down? We're all being played with.....or in 1 word, manipulated......by this media circus.

I wonder if those AN members in TH and familiar with recent political gangsterism here have, like me, wondered sadly at how the (very) apparent collapse of democracy in the west only serves the interests of those utterly opposed to it here. Those whose will have tragically prevailed. The so-called 'models of democracy' in the west were models only in the alternative sense of being dressed-up mannequins.

I enjoyed reading this post, GG. It's lavishly nostalgic, on your part and mine too, for times to which I can - though a tad younger than yourself I think - relate quite a bit. ???? Of distinction for me is the (unexpected & humorously & strangely challenging!) notion of one recollecting INsignificant experiences in old Asia, rather than significant ones. Well, I've got plenty of those. But none I could tell as well as you do.

Beautifully laid out...????.....in more words than I would have had the stamina to type! Seriously.......you've nailed it, re Wissanu. The guy is certainly high up there in my ranking of most descipable junta hustlers. Good call. I thank you. ????????

The final sentence of this Daily News piece is curious.....and amongst other things......bristles with a kind of menacing vibe (imo). ???????????? Something 'lost in translation' here? Author's own views ambiguously expressed? Dark days in the LOS, by golly. To be more specific about why I think so would be too unwise.

Sustainable, top-end cocktail supply lines being, of course, the imperative, by whatever means! Chok dee & bottoms up!